Alcohol is the most dangerous substance in the US

Alcohol is the most dangerous substance in the US

Yep, research shows us that alcohol is 114 times more dangerous than cannabis consumption. In fact, it is the most dangerous substance in the US causing tens of thousands of deaths each year and many other harmful effects on society.

Yet despite this, alcohol can be bought on virtually every corner without a problem. On the other hand, we have cannabis that has to jump through various loopholes and legal hurdles to even be prescribed as a medicine to those in need.

Stats on Booze

There are roughly 87.6% of people 18 and older who have stated that they have consumed alcohol in the past. 71% reported that they consumed the drug in the past year and with about 56% of people claiming they have consumed it in the past month.

With roughly 88,000 deaths caused by alcohol which makes it the third cause of death in the US. A 2006 estimate suggests that this costs the Taxpayer a whopping $223.5 billion dollars per year. More than 10% of American children live with a parent who have problems with alcohol.

Stats on Marijuana

In the US, there are roughly 97 million people who say that they have tried marijuana at least once in their lifetime. The regular smokers tend to hover in the 20 million marker. While there have been ER visits because of marijuana, none of them were fatal.

A recent study found that cannabis consumption does not lead to an increase of the likeliness to crash your vehicle. In addition, there are millions of Americans who currently have a recommendation from their doctors to use cannabis for medical relief.

Prohibition doesn’t work

In the end, you have to look at the facts. Under prohibition, cannabis became more prevalent than ever. While alcohol is significantly more dangerous than cannabis, we’re not seeing Al Capone and his ilk running around waging turf wars on the streets.

The regulated system allows people to legally purchase alcohol without having to resort to the black market. If one were to legalize cannabis, we would see a lot of the black market vanish. There will always be some sort of black market for everything; however, the legal market will always trump the black market.

It’s time we stop the hypocrisy, if you are truly in favor of making America safer but you don’t have the cojones to make alcohol illegal, you can’t exercise such a deep level of hypocrisy when it comes to cannabis. People should have a right to choose their intoxicant, especially if it doesn’t affect anyone else.